


the best self care is having other people do it for you

by aplethoraofthings



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: "Kanzaki Souma", I'm late and i am so sorry, M/M, rated t for hibiki wataru
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-05
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2019-06-05 15:35:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15173819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aplethoraofthings/pseuds/aplethoraofthings
Summary: Keito slams his stamp down on the last club request form, approving the basketball club to get...what was it again? More importantly, what time is it? Keito squints at the clock at the opposite wall, as if that would clear the blur of sleep deprivation from his tired eyes.It didn’t.





	the best self care is having other people do it for you

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Druzaina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Druzaina/gifts).



> aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA i'm late and i'm sorry about that college orientation prep slammed me harder than i thuoght it would h///
> 
> i'm also sorry if i took your prompt a bit too far in a direction different from your letter, but I hope you enjoy it anyways!

Keito slams his stamp down on the last club request form, approving the basketball club to get...what was it again? More importantly, what time is it? Keito squints at the clock at the opposite wall, as if that would clear the blur of sleep deprivation from his tired eyes. 

It didn’t.

Still, judging by the pink glow streaming through the window and the long shadow Eichi’s desk cast on the floor, it’s approaching late evening. Really, he should have gone home when Isara did, but since Eichi had left early out of health concerns, there was nothing to be done for it. His eyes droop, staring vacantly at the mahogany brown of his desk. Maybe he could just...

“Hasumi-dono? I have the documents you requested!”

“Kanzaki? Come in then.”

Quickly he straightens himself back up, settling his glasses properly on his face. The thought of Kanzaki fretting over him was simply too much to deal with at the moment. Although... why was Kanzaki still here? Did Keito even request his help, or was Kanzaki being helpful as always?

“My deepest apologies, Hasumi-dono, but my hands are quite full! Could I trouble you to open the door?”

“Give me a second.”

Keito takes a deep breath in, filling his lungs with what remains of his strength, and pushes himself to his feet. Instantly his ears ring and his vision goes colorful and spotty, the room slowly spinning around him. He grips the desk with a sweaty hand, breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth until he feels like he won’t instantly collapse. Despite everything, his gait is steady and his grip on the door is firm enough to swing it open and be met with Hibiki Wataru’s smiling face.

In the deep shadows of the evening light his eyes seem to glow in the dark, and the red rays of the dying sun make his teeth shine like they’ve been stained with blood, but that’s all he has time to process before he’s thrown over Hibiki’s shoulder. One of his damned birds peeked out of his shoe, looking at him with it’s cold, beady eyes, before tittering at him and slinking back into his owner's shoe.

“Incredible! Amazing! You were so utterly fooled I was starting to think you would fool me into thinking you were the fool! Foolish! The only fools here are me, myself and I! Yes, I am your very own Hibiki Wataru, here to steal you away from the tedium of keeping everything running like a poorly oiled machine that you feel the need to work yourself into the ground to maintain…”

He pranced around the room like Keito weighed less than nothing, easily gathering all of Keito’s into his school bag. Somehow, being jostled helps him shake off the utter shock of ridiculousness to let righteous anger burn in its place.

“What is this? Put me down and leave immediately, you bumbling dolt! Did Eichi put you up to this? He did, didn’t he? Even while he's away he still saddles me with the most troublesome things.”

“But what would life be without trouble? Darkness cannot exist without light, and light cannot help but create darkness! So too is it for Eichi, the sun of Yumenosaki, and all of us, no? Ooh, classified documents!”

Despite all of Keito’s protests, flailing, and knees to places that should have sent Hibiki crumpling to the ground, he instead skims over the documents in his ‘done’ pile, humming thoughtfully like he actually cares about the information. Just as abruptly, he sets all the papers down, and they vanish from the desk.

“Where did you put those? Do not touch my things!” 

“Where they were supposed to go. Hush, it's past time for all the children to go home, don't you think?”

“You're the youngest 3rd year.”

“That doesn't mean you should squander your youth. If you don't live now, when will you?” 

Hibiki saunters them to the door, produces Keito’s keys and locks it, then sprints backwards through the french doors and off the balcony, and Keito barely manages to squeak before they fall through the sunroof of a Tenshouin limousine. 

“Voila! You have been whisked away by your very own Phantom Thief Hibiki! Please enjoy the ride~”

The sunroof slides closed and the car begins to move, driving off and around the school. Hibiki takes a seat on the opposite side of the car, affixing him with a mischievous look while his hair fires off a text. 

“Why are you doing this?”

Hibiki quirks an eyebrow at him, but it comes across as more teasing that genuine confusion. 

“Isn’t it obvious? How can you truly be my fated rival if you can’t even nourish yourself properly? How can you be a prim and proper retainer for our beloved emperor if you can’t properly manage your own responsibilities?” Hibiki’s voice was suddenly much whinier and much closer, one warm hand splayed over Keito’s chest. “How could I ever fall in love with a man who won’t even come to bed most days of the week? Hey, darling~, what am I to do?”

Keito shoves Hibiki away, one hand on his stupid face to try and muffle the boisterous laughter. Instantly, the air in the limo seems to shift, and the glint in Hibiki's purple eyes warps from amusement to sultry. Hibiki’s hand grabs his wrist and drags his fingers down over his chiseled chin, down his bared throat that buzzes under this fingers with every word, down over the line of his collarbone and down to where the first button of his shirt is undone, letting Keito’s fingers catch there. 

“My, my, don’t get too rough with me, Keito-kun. You’ll give the driver the wrong impression, you know?”

His cheeks go red at the implications of those words, and Keito rips his hand back like he’s been burned. Wataru guffaws through it all, falling on his back while Keito yells at him to stop being such an insatiable harlot. 

The Tenshouin employees are really not paid enough for this. 

Someway, somehow, the car pulls up in front of the Tenshouin estate with both of its passengers still in one piece, despite how many times Keito tries to strangle Wataru, or how many times Wataru attempts to give Keito a heart attack. The sun has fully set by then, stars starting to twinkle in the darkest corners of the night. Wataru hops out through the sunroof again, beating both Keito and the chauffeur to swing open the limousine doors. Globe lanterns illuminate the stairs and ramp up the grand entryway, matching the warm glow from the windows. In the cool night air, with the whisper of the trees the only noise, it was like he had stepped into a fairytale. 

But concerning Eichi, when wasn’t he in a fairytale?

“Shall we waltz our way up, Princess?” Hibiki, always one to drag Keito away from any sense of tranquility, instantly broke whatever spell twilight and sleep deprivation had put on him, but when Keito looked at Hibiki, all the anger died in his throat. 

Hibiki knelt before him, dressed like a prince, down to the flowing cape and silver crown, one hand extended to him with the softest expression Keito had ever seen. Even his aura had changed, no longer some twisted version of tomfoolery but instead something dazzling, something regal. Hibiki smiled, and the world seemed to sparkle like he could infuse his happiness into everything his light touched.

Keito took his hand before he could think twice.

Despite the subconscious fear in the back of his mind, there was no trick or discordant laughter, just Hibiki flashing him a smile that might have been bashful before it turned fake and plastic, tugging him close to hum a melody only they could hear as they spun their way up the stairs. 

“Oh? Looks like you two are getting along better. I’m glad.”

“Eichi!”

Keito breaks apart from Wataru, turning to see Eichi standing in the doorway, bundled up in a fluffy robe and slippers, his blanket draped over his shoulders like a cross between a shawl and a cape. 

“Eichi!” Wataru repeats, using Keito’s voice. “What are you doing outside?”

“Don’t borrow my voice! And more than that, what are you doing out of bed?”

Instantly, Eichi’s composed demeanor crumples under their worry, and he slinks deeper into his robe like the petulant child he is.

“Honestly, can’t I even greet guests to my own home? It’s bad enough when Keito is stuffy, but Wataru too? It’s like I never left the hospital…”

“Ah, never fret! Your dutiful clown will surely brighten your every day until it all blurs into a never-ending instant bright enough to rival a white hole! Yes, Eichi, Hasumi no Keito-kun, Let us go explore the wonders of the cosmos as one!”

Hibiki snags them both around the waist, and then Hibiki is the only thing that keeps him from becoming a Keito shaped stain on the Tenshouin’s Persian carpet. Keito yelps as Eichi giggles, the floor of the foyer rushing beneath them as the crest the massive crystal chandelier ( “Like going to the other side of the moon!” Wataru laughs, and Keito digs his nails in more when his face heats up.). Wataru touches down on the landing without a sound, and Keito slides from his arms to feel the stability of the ground with his own two hands.

“Ah, there’s nothing quite like a pick-me-up to pick you up, huh? Regardless, it is time for me to craft you something so delicious your taste buds will have never known ecstasy-no, such Amazing!”

Hibiki throws up both of his hands, and where he once stood there is a cardboard cut-out in the same pose he just made. Behind him, Eichi giggles the way he does when he’s starstruck or on the verge of mania, and Keito knows the expression Eichi must have, even if he can’t see his face. He pushes himself to his feet and takes Eichi’s cold hand in his, dragging him away from the standee before Eichi can demand it be taken to his room and added to his shrine. Why he insists on collecting everything even though he could have the bloody fool himself anytime he liked was beyond Keito, but so was liking the concept of Hibiki Wataru in any capacity.

“Come on. I’m going to go take a bath.”

“Have you grown so old that you need my help to bathe? Keito…”

“No, I’m doing it so you won’t make any more bad decisions regarding that idiot you keep letting into your house.”

“You can’t stop the pre-planned decisions, dummy. Now come on, you stink.”

“You don’t have to be around me. In fact, you should go back to bed. You sent yourself home for once, act like it.”

“But I already took a nap before you both got here! Besides, it’s not a crime to spend time with you, is it? Every time I go to sleep, there's a chance this garbage body of mine just might not wake up, so isn’t it better to spend the time that I’m awake the way I please? If being asleep, if wasting away in a bed is a nightmare, then shouldn’t everything else be like a dream?”

“You’ve spent too much time with that fool.” Keito huffs and looks away, preparing for his bath. Without realizing, or perhaps just without being aware of it, they’d walked to Eichi’s bathroom, where a bath had already been drawn for him. Eichi still hadn’t left, and was smiling at him the way he always does when he wants something from Keito. 

And Keito, every time, would give it to him. 

The bath passes in the way most things do when one has had 3 hours of sleep over the past 3 days, only better. It’s a pleasant haze of steam and clean scented soap, of Eichi’s slim fingers exfoliating his face and running through his hair, of dozing in the pool-like tub with his head in Eichi’s lap, and not caring that it’s Hibiki’s solo he’s humming. 

“Keito,” Eichi prods eventually, poking his cheek a bit lighter than he normally would have. Keito hums back, listening but content not to do anything about it.

“You should get out now before your hands look like the wrinkly old man you are inside.” He scowls at that, but doesn’t move or even open his eyes.

“I’ve got no choice then…”

Eichi’s hands slip under Keito’s arms, and before Keito registers just how much he should have gotten out when Eichi told him to, he is painfully yanked upwards by the armpits. Keito flounders, which makes Eichi scrabble for grip, and from there it’s a mess of shouts and slips and water flying absolutely everywhere. Keto ends up halfway on top of Eichi, who’s laughing so hard he might need his inhaler, despite the fact that he looks like a drowned cat. 

“Eichi!”

“What?”

“You shouldn’t strain yourself like that!”

“A bit of light exercise is good for the body and the mind, though. The doctors might actually be proud of me, for once!”

“Attempting to lift me out of the bath is not ‘light exercise’, no matter what Hibiki tells you.” Keito clambers to his feet and snags two towels, tossing one to Eichi. Behind him Eichi goes suspiciously quiet, but Keito doesn’t realize the danger until Eichi’s towel smacks his calf. Incorrigible. 

They arrive at the home theatre much later than they should have, if the fact that Hibiki is murmuring to someone on the phone instead of greeting them with an awful prank and boisterous laughter is anything to go by. He covers his mouth with a book and his eyes dart everywhere but the door by some miracle. It’s almost cute, but it’s not, because cute isn’t something Hibiki should be capable of. Eichi places a finger against his lips, creeping slowly down the carpet stairs off to the left. Keito watches them out of his peripherals as he heads down the middle, towards where a trolly is set up in front of one bed-like couch. 

There’s a muffled squeak just as he gets himself settled with a nice fluffy blanket, and then Eichi appears next to him. A tray falls from the ceiling over them, the cloches from the trolly settling in front of him. With a clap of his hands, the lights dim and the screen in front of them slowly fades in.

“Yes! Amazing! Your very own chef Hibiki Wataru has whippidy-dippidied up a deliciously simple, simply delicious curry that will surely fill the malnourished bellies of overworked student council vice presidents everywhere! Now then, with it I have selected a movie at random from my personal favorites shelf! I enjoy it quite a bit, so I might even get angry if you think it’s bad...Have a fine night!”

Hibiki bows low to them, then spins around to leave, but Eichi snags the end of his ponytail and winds it around his fist like a leash until Wataru has bent over backwards to peer at Eichi.

“What’s this? You seem quite dissatisfied, Eichi. Did I forget something?”

“Yes, yes you did.”

“I did? Oh dear, oh me, oh my, oh dear, oh me, oh my...what could it possibly be? The food? No...The bath? No… Signing off on a theatre club budget expansion with Keito-kun’s signature? Definitely not...Oh! I see! There’s simply not enough Amazing! Now then…” The wide-eyed expression Hibiki had had morphs into something that would look more at home on a doll or a clown, all plastic happiness and somehow even more dead eyes. 

“Now let’s see...where did I put it? In my shoe?”

A stream of glitter spills from the tip of his left shoe, covering the three of them, and everything nearby in a rainbow of sparkles. Thankfully the food was still under the cloches, though Keito didn’t doubt some would end up on it anyway.

“My other shoe?”

This time a stream of rose petals covered them, which almost would have been romantic if it wasn’t coming from Hibiki’s foot. 

“My other other shoe?”

A multitude of air horns all blaring at different pitches filled the room, and Keito clapped a hand over his ears, though somehow neither Eichi nor Hibiki seemed perturbed by the noise. Just as soon as it had started, it stopped, though Keito couldn’t tell if the ringing in his ears was the noise still lingering in his mind or a migraine finding new ways to manifest itself. Probably both. 

“In my sleeves mayhaps perhaps?”

Hibiki raises his arms, one sleeve sending out balloons that inflate themselves to rise to the high ceiling, while the other covers them in cards from what looks like every deck ever made, with a neon-colored tarot deck mixed in for variety. Some part of him feels like he should be shouting about how big the mess Hibiki’s making is, but the rest of Keito is content to watch his hand phase through his leg, half aware of everything else around him.

“Oh, if it’s not any of those places, then it’s surely-”

Eichi reached over and pinched Wataru’s nose shut, effectively silencing him. 

“It’s you, Wataru.”

“Oh.”

“You agreed to stay earlier. Don’t tell me you’d think I’d forgotten?”

“Of course not! To presume that your memory would be failing already would be most presumptuous of me! Why-”

Eichi pinches Wataru's nose again, somehow looking even more displeased. They mummer to each other in voices too low for Keito to hear, despite the fact that they’re both right next to him. Something in Hibiki’s expression gives, though it doesn’t look like it changed at all, and the straightens up, leaving Eichi holding some silk rope the same shade as his hair. In a blink he’s gone, leaving Eichi to plop down in a great puff of glitter and rose petals.

“Keito, you haven’t touched your food at all… are you that tired? Here, I’ll feed you, so don’t push yourself, okay?”

Eichi grabs Keito’s spoon and tosses the cover over his food somewhere else in the theatre, then feeds him a bite before Keito can even think to respond. His eyes water, though if it’s from how deliciously spicy the curry is or Eichi hitting the back of his throat with the spoon, he couldn’t tell. The meat practically fell apart in his mouth, melding with the heat of the spices and the flavor of the curry, all over soft rice…

HIs bowl is clean before he knows it. 

At some point Wataru had returned, wearing comfy looking pajamas and a mask that covers his entire face, a half-eaten lava cake next to his empty bowl. The movie played dimly in front of him, a soothing array of washed out colors and low voices, and it was all too easy to fall back against plush cushions and Eichi’s bony shoulder. Someone giggles and slips his glasses off, and amidst the easy comfort and soft warmth of just being next to Eichi, he lets his eyes slide closed.


End file.
